AFRC helps Airmen, families

  • Published
  • By Sean McGuire
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs summer intern
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  When someone from Team Malmstrom needs a hand, one place to go is the Airman and Family Readiness Center.

Its team of 12 stands ready to help Airmen improve their lives. They provide information, run life skills programs and work with base leadership to make life better for all members of Malmstrom Air Force Base. From finances and pregnancies to retirements and PSCs, the center's staff deals with just about everything.

"Every day seems to be a little bit different," Community Readiness Consultant Tracie Faulk said. "And that's one of the beautiful things about our center is that we can help in
any area."

They can also help many more people than just Airmen. Retired military and family members can seek services. Anyone in the National Guard or the Reserve can use the facility; so can their families. Even eligible Department of Defense civilians and their families are welcomed. In fact, School Liaison Officer Dawn Beal encourages families to come to the center.

"Bring your spouse," she said. "Get spouses in here to utilize programs that we have to offer. We have a lot of education that we can provide to families, not just the active-duty member."

These programs cover a wide spectrum of needs. One of the most popular is finances. This does not surprise Faulk at all.

"If anybody's been paying attention to the economy lately, in the last few months, it's been overwhelming, frightening and terrifying for people," she said. "We help out anywhere as far as finances from developing a budget all the way up to investing for retirement purposes or just a quick return on investment."

Some customers need more drastic assistance than that. Happily, that is precisely what Air Force Aid Society was made to do. Airmen in need can borrow cash with zero-interest for things like food, rent or surprise medical bills.

Similar to this is the Falcon Loan Program. With a simple application, active-duty Airmen can get a loan of as much as $500. This can only be used twice in an Air Force career.

"We also do debt elimination," Faulk said. "I've worked with hundreds of clients, but one success story is that of an individual that had about $10,000 worth of debt. He wanted to eliminate that within a year's time frame; he eliminated it within seven months. He came in and wrote out his last check in front of me, that seventh month. It's just a matter of people being committed to eliminating that debt and that's what he was."

Beyond finances lie family matters. Faulk and Beal enthusiastically recommend Heartlink, a class for spouses of military members. The class lasts six hours, but they emphasized its benefits especially for those who are new to military life.

"It's a structured class, but it's informal; it's not intimidating or anything like that," Faulk said. "It helps ease them and minimize the culture shock because the military lifestyle is a lot different."

Spouses interested in this program can keep updated with Spouse Link. This electronic newsletter is issued every two weeks. It features times for Heartlink classes and several other AFRC programs.

Beyond spouse life, there is the Transition Assistance Program. All Airmen leaving Malmstrom are required to take the Smooth Move counseling session in TAP. Airmen that plan to retire or switch careers can benefit from other TAP services like resume writing and career planning. Airmen moving to another base can take advantage of the Relocation Assistance Program's services, which includes help with budgeting the trip and researching the new base's job market.

There are also family education programs, including Bundles for Babies, a pregnancy class in which attendees receive parenting advice and $75 worth of baby products. Other programs cover topics like family finance and stress management. For immediate issues, the AFRC has a Military Family Life Consultant who service members can consult for free.

If an Airman is wounded, a Recovery Care Coordinator is on-hand to help. For those with devastating injury or illness, the coordinator helps to draft and carry out a plan to recuperate. The devastating injury must be one that keeps Airmen away from duty either permanently or for a long time.

Families with special needs can visit the Exceptional Family Member Program Family Support. They can answer any questions about special needs services around the base and Great Falls. Every quarter there is training for families with special needs. Sometimes the AFRC staff will bring in guest speakers from Great Falls.

"Last quarter we brought in QLC (Quality Life Concepts)," Faulk said. "They're a big service provider downtown: a range of different therapies and support groups and for anybody with a wide range of special needs."

Beal's school liaison position is one of the newest at Malmstrom.

"It's an information and referral program. I help families transitioning to Malmstrom with questions about the school district," she said. "I've been here since December, so people are still just learning about this position and starting to utilize it. It's starting to really pick up."

Beal goes to the local schools, providing education about military children and what they go through. This way, the faculty of these schools understands their new pupils when things like deployments happen.

On top of that, each squadron has an AFRC staff member assigned to it.

"As community readiness consultants, we're assigned certain squadrons, just to provide any consultation. We offer different programs to come out to their squadrons," said Faulk.

"I actually have worked with several squadrons to come to them and provide financial management classes. And then we'll have individuals that feel comfortable, so now they'll come into our center and ask more personalized questions."

That is the great hope for Faulk, Beal and the rest of the AFRC team: that more people will come to use their resources. For more information, call them at 731-4900 or visit their website at http://341fss.com/afrc1